The influence of the amount and nature of dietary fat on milk fat composition in the sow

Abstract

1. The effects of the introduction into the diet of natural fats rich in individual fatty acids or of simple triglycerides on the composition of blood lipids and of milk fat in the sow were investigated.2. Replacement in the diet of a mixture of animal, vegetable and marine oils by a single natural fat had varying effects on the concentrations of plasma lipid fractions, whereas replacement of tallow by simple triglycerides, with few exceptions, increased the concentrations of all fractions.3. When butyric or caprylic acids were present in the diet there was no detectable transfer of those acids to plasma triglycerides, and there was only a limited transfer of dietary erucic acid. An increase in the dietary concentration of other acids (ranging from capric to linolenic) was associated with an increase in the content of the acids in the plasma triglycerides. For saturated fatty acids the response to dietary changes was at a maximum for myristic acid.4. The effects on the composition of milk fat reflected the changes in the composition of the plasma triglycerides, except during the feeding of cottonseed oil when there were marked decreases in milk fat of palmitoleic and oleic acids and corresponding increases in palmitic and stearic acids which were not observed in the plasma triglycerides. Also, during the feeding of coconut oil, capric acid was present in the plasma triglycerides but not in milk fat, and the increases in the plasma triglycerides of lauric and myristic acids were much more marked than the corresponding increases in milk fat.

The Effects of Changing Sow Dietary Fatty Acids on Fetal Plasma Fatty Acid Patterns

“…It is noteworthy that, although the sows eating the basal diet and soybean oil added diet were receiving the same amount of 18:2n-6 in the dietary fat, the area percent l8l.2n-6 levels in the plasma of the soybean oil added animals was much higher. The effect of dietary lipid on blood plasma fatty acid patterns has been reported in older pigs before (Witter and Rook 1970;Kruse et al 1977). In this study, fetal plasma fatty acid patterns were not sensitive to maternal diet changes; the exceptions being the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs).…”

Nutritional and physiological role of medium-chain triglycerides and medium-chain fatty acids in piglets

“…Cow and sheep milk and human breast milk contain only small amounts of MCFAs. Merely trace amounts can be detected in the milk of the sow, the camel and the guinea pig (Witter and Rook, 1970; Decuypere and Dierick, 2003). It is not fully understood as to why MCFA concentrations differ among species; however, species-specific discrepancies in the activities of tissue-specific thioesterases appear to be responsible for the varying efficacies in synthesis (Libertini and Smith, 1978; Rudolph et al , 2007).…”

The comparative roles of polyunsaturated fatty acids in pig neonatal development

“…Sow's milk is characterized by a predominance of oleic acid followed by palmitic, linoleic and palmitoleic acids. The short-chain fatty acids butyric (4:0), caproic (6:0) and caprylic (8:0) acids are not present in the milk under any dietary conditions whilst capric (10:0) and lauric (12:0) are present only in trace amounts (Witter & Rook, 1970). The fatty acid composition of the milk is influenced extensively by the fatty acid composition of the sow diet.…”